Watch Me Nei-Nei: CARNEGIE review

I would like a do-over.

Back in the summer of 2023, after playing roughly 160 new games from 2022, I published another installment in our annual Fleur de Ludo awards, including our game of the year and recommended titles.

Carnegie did not make that list. I do have a good excuse: I had not played it in person back then. My first live play of Carnegie did not come until April 11, 2025, and since then, I have played it four times at every play count.

What an oversight! Carnegie is exactly the kind of game I look for in my games of the year — clever design, interesting puzzles, replayability. But I am getting a little ahead of the story.

Let’s talk about what Carnegie is. Carnegie is a euro game for one to four players designed by Xavier Georges and published by Quined Games set in the life and times of Andrew Carnegie. Players play as industrialists in the late 19th century developing the country through advances in transportation, investment in projects, and interestingly enough, charitable donations to the community and arts. Who knew that victory points can be earned on this side of the pearly gates just for being a good person?

The game comes with a map of the United States, with an interlocking web of familiar cities like New Orleans and New York. Each city has room for at least one project — things like new homes or investments or even infrastructure like bridges — and players have four different available actions each round to make that growth happen.

Through clever combinations of purchasing upgrades to your own player board, sending your workers out on missions to various parts of the country, recalling your workers for income, and connecting your cities, players will earn enough money to make donations on behalf of their own foundation. Almost everything here has the potential to score points here, if you make the right donations during the game.

Why am I lamenting that I did not play this in 2022-23? Because Carnegie has so many of the elements that I cherish about euro gaming. For one, there doesn’t seem to be a set way to win this game. In my four games, I mainly focused on connecting New Orleans to Chicago to New York — kinda thematic given the late 19th century growth of the Crescent City — and building up an engine of housing projects and complementary donations. But I’ve seen other strategies work, too.

Some players have focused on the potential bigger points available if you connect San Francisco, because connecting cities is one part of the multiplier of end game scoring that comes with making the right donations and upgrading your transportation networks. Others have focused heavily on the donations themselves or on income potential or on their own player board.

I don’t think there is a right way to win, at least I have not seen it yet, but like any good euro, it’s probably a combination of two or three things done well. And like any good euro, I’m always excited to dive in and try a new strategy.

Plus, there’s lots of engine building, one of my favorite mechanisms. Here, players are charged with supersizing their player boards with an interesting slide out of available projects in four flavors. And get this: the four slides are double sided, and can be mixed and matched, meaning that you can at the start of your game already modify what routes will be built with your engine. It’s a simple little addition, and not something new players even need to worry about, but veterans of Carnegie get one more crunchy decision at the very start of the game.

But maybe the most surprising / not surprising thing about Carnegie is the player interaction. I shouldn’t be surprised at all. The previous game I played from Xavier Georges was Carson City, one of the most interactive, thematic euros out there. But I was surprised at how much interaction there is in Carnegie. Admit it — you looked at the board, and saw nothing but colors and lines and nary an interactive element in sight.

But, you have to look closer. The action board, especially the second time you play, is where all the … erm … action is. Players take turns over the 20 rounds of the game choosing what action will be available that round. Keeping an eye out for what your rivals are doing is crucial to the timing important to choosing the action. Is there any more satisfying sound in board gaming than the groan that emanates from the player to your left when you pick the action and section of the board that he was not ready for? Nope. I just love when a game rewards players for keeping an eye on the game flow and timing their actions correctly.

When we finished our second game of Carnegie, we immediately went straight to BGA and started firing up a game. The BGA implementation is fantastic, not quite as good as playing it live with all the table talk that ensues, but a really well done version of the game.

This week, I got in a copy of the expansion, and I am beyond pumped to add some more tiles and donations to the mix. I wish I had played Carnegie back in 2022, as I feel pretty sure it would have made my list of top games back then. I’m entitled to a mulligan now and then, right? The only downside to revisiting 2022 is trying to figure out which game to kick out of my top six. I think I’ll kick that can down the road a bit longer.

Until next time, laissez les bon temps rouler!

— BJ from Board Game Gumbo